Prof. Shigui RUAN received his doctoral degreefrom University of Alberta in 1992, then he became a post doctor in Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences and McMaster University. He joined University of Miami in 2002 and currently works as a professor there. His research interests include differential equations, dynamical systems and mathematical biology: (i) I am interested in studying nonlinear dynamics of some kinds of differential equations, such as the center manifold theory and Hopf bifurcation in semilinear evolution equations, multiple-parameter bifurcations in delay equations, and traveling waves in nonlocal reaction-diffusion systems, which have significant applications in biology and medicine. (ii) I am also interested in modeling and studying transmission dynamics of some infectious diseases (for instance, malaria, Rift Valley Fever in Egypt, Hepatitis B virus, Schistosomiasis, human rabies in China, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus in US, etc.) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria infection in hospital and community. (iii) I have been trying to model some specific medical and biological problems such as the interaction of tumor cells and immune system, hematopoiesis process with applications to chronic myelogenous leukemia, the effect of seasonal harvesting on predator-prey models, immune response to HIV and malaria infections, etc.

Lecture Abstract

The ongoing Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic poses a major global public health emergency as it has been reported in more than 60 countries worldwide, including China and USA. It is well-known that ZIKV is spread by Aedes mosquitoes, recent studies show that ZIKV can also be transmitted via sexual contact and cases of sexually transmitted ZIKV of the current outbreak have been confirmed in several countries. In this talk we first present a mathematical model to investigate the impact of mosquito-borne transmission and sexual transmission on prevention and control of ZIKV and use the model to fit the ZIKV data up to February 2016 in Brazil, Colombia, and El Salvador. Our result indicates that sexual transmission increases the risk of infection and epidemic size and prolongs the outbreak. Then we will introduce a second model to describe how Zika virus can be imported, established and spread in new territories by international travel. In order to prevent and control the transmission of ZIKV, it must be treated as not only a mosquito-borne disease but also a sexually transmitted disease.